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Creativity abounds in Design Immersion

8/30/2013

From: Jennifer Judge Hensel

Michigan Engineering

More than 200 engineering students gathered around and watched in anticipation as the machine began working. Step after step it went through a chain of events, until finally – "pop" – a ping pong ball launched ten feet in the air and landed successfully into a basket.

The sequence of events happened again and again Aug. 29 – sometimes with success, and sometimes failure. But it was all part of a learning experience for incoming Michigan Engineering students.

The activity was part of Design Immersion, a 36-hour boot camp for incoming University of Michigan College of Engineering students that includes a variety of challenges to jumpstart creativity and introduce the modern engineering design process. It culminated with the creation of a Rube Goldberg machine, which is a device that uses a series of complicated actions to accomplish a simple result – in this case, launching a small ball into a target.

Teams were presented with limited materials, which included a KNEX motor, cardboard, duct tape, cup, spoon and various office materials, and asked to build the machine in a few short hours. This year's winning team hit the target three out of three times, which is a first for the challenge.

"It was a really great way to end the competition, and demonstrated that the wining team tested the machine many times to ensure it could handle three successful attempts in a row – and under pressure!" said Jennifer Wegner, Assistant Director of Student Affairs at the U-M College of Engineering.

“The purpose of the program is to help students experience the entire process of engineering design that their education is preparing them for,” said Gail Hohner, Managing Director of the Multidisciplinary Design Program. “Students often get focused just on single classes and lose sight of the entire process. We want to show it to them at the very beginning and remind them that engineering is a process that they can learn and develop their skills in.”

The program challenges students to tackle both fast-paced activities intended to get their creative juices flowing and more in-depth challenges during which they gather data from real sources and build complex solutions to the problems.

“All of the games in this 36 hours have real-world applications for engineers, we’ve just put it together in an environment that is fun and exciting,” said Hohner.

Design Immersion, now in its third year at the College of Engineering, is offered free of charge to registered incoming first-year engineering students. This year's event was sponsored by Union Pacific.

About Michigan Engineering: The University of Michigan College of Engineering is one of the top engineering schools in the country. Eight academic departments are ranked in the nation's top 10 -- some twice for different programs. Its research budget is one of the largest of any public university. Its faculty and students are making a difference at the frontiers of fields as diverse as nanotechnology, sustainability, healthcare, national security and robotics. They are involved in spacecraft missions across the solar system, and have developed partnerships with automotive industry leaders to transform transportation. Its entrepreneurial culture encourages faculty and students alike to move their innovations beyond the laboratory and into the real world to benefit society. Its alumni base of nearly 70,000 spans the globe.